In his novel “Returning to Haifa,” Ghassan Kanafani says: “Do you know what the homeland is, Safiya? Home is not all that happens.” This is one of the most common sayings that we evoke when we remember the curse of the homelands that afflicted our peoples.
No matter how hard we try to travel to live in Western countries and hold their nationalities, and no matter what successes we achieve, we always yearn to return home. But what is home today? Is it that geographical space that cut short our dreams? Is it where we were born? Is he the one who gave us the reasons for success? Is it that place that was the cause of our displacement? Or is it the true meaning of estrangement that gave us everything we missed in the place of our birth? Of course, Ghassan Kanafani’s question will remain unanswered. As for the poor Safiya, she must believe that the whole country is for God. She should forget that entity in which she was born, because it has become a farm for chronic politicians and sect kings who sowed corruption and desolation on the land.
At first, I mentioned the “curse of the homelands”, following the media recently reported two influential stories. The first is Lebanon stricken with political failure and economic collapse. The second is Somalia, a country divided by wars, pillaged by armed militias, and whose waterways have become a center for international piracy.
I start with Lebanon, whose team finished runners-up to the Asian Basketball Champion following losing the final once morest Australia by 75-73 in a match that was like a battle for young athletes who represented their country with a high sense, emphasizing their desire to write a new history for their country, which suffers from various political and economic crises.
Thus, they achieved a great achievement and revived the hearts of the Lebanese with the long-awaited joy. The captain of the Lebanese national team, Wael Arakji, was able to win the title of “Best Player in the 2022 Asian Basketball Championship”. He also won the highest circulation of the hashtag “Wael Araqji represents me”, following his explicit rejection of political investment in their sporting achievement. Many activists on social media circulated his response to the congratulations of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on his victory over his Chinese counterpart in the Asian Cup.
Arakji responded quickly and harshly, commenting: “Tell him we don’t want to congratulate him, and we are trying to wipe the dirt that we put in with his fellow politicians. So, he better keep his mouth shut.
The strange thing in Lebanon is that some of the followers of this leader or that, and as a matter of sectarian and opportunist thinking, tried through their comments to limit the response of Captain Arakji to the head of the government, as if other presidencies were more innocent and pure in their political performance!!
Thank you to Wael Araqji, the responsible citizen and successful athlete, for giving us great hope for the future of Lebanon, the “deferred homeland” at a time when “misery makers” are multiplying. Those who have monopolized the country, plundered its wealth and controlled the fate of its people for at least four decades.
I am not Mohamed Farah!
In Britain, sports circles were shocked by the statements of the well-known runner Mo Farah, who revealed terrifying and exciting secrets regarding his life before he became a well-known athlete.
In a documentary film, broadcast by the British “BBC” recently, entitled “The Real Mo Farah,” British Olympic champion Muhammad Farah, known as “Mo Farah,” revealed that he was illegally transferred to the United Kingdom when he was a child, and was forced to work as a servant in the a house. He admitted that his real name is not Muhammad Farah, but Hussein Abdi Kahin. He said he was born in Somalia and entered the UK as a refugee from Mogadishu when he was nine years old to join his father who was in London, which is not true.
Farah confirmed that he was a victim of illegal trafficking when he was brought to London from Djibouti in the 1990s. He added, “I’ve kept this a secret for years.”
He has revealed that his parents have never traveled to the UK and that his mother and two brothers live on a farm in Somaliland, which declared independence in 1991 but is not recognized internationally.
The 39-year-old athlete, who won four Olympic gold medals, said his father Abdi was shot dead when Farah was four years old in violence in Mogadishu.
After his father was killed, Farah went to live with his relatives in Djibouti. He was then brought to the UK by a woman he had never seen and with whom he was not related. This woman had told him that she would take him to Europe to live with his relatives, which encouraged him because he had never flown before. When he arrived in London, she took him to her flat in Hounslow, west London, immediately changed his name to him and called him “Muhammad”. Then he was forced to do housework and take care of another family’s children.. He was not allowed to go to school until he was twelve.
At school, his talent appeared in athletics, which, according to the BBC, changed his life, because he was able to participate in competitions in British schools. His sports teacher, Alan Watkinson, helped him obtain British citizenship, under the name Muhammad Farah, which the authorities granted him in July 2000.
Somalis and refugees, of all cultures, look to Farah as a source of inspiration. He is the refugee who managed to achieve major world championships and wide fame. The difficulties he faced in life did not solve the sporting “exception” of him in Britain. He was awarded the knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of the Somali-born runner’s efforts in representing Britain on the international athletics scene.
Farah survived early from the “curse of the homeland” and the civil wars that his country has been experiencing since the eighties until today.
Will his countrymen survive?
Lebanese writer
